Cricket’s credo needs to be upheld

In recent times every thing does not seem right with our cricket. This is a pity considering the lofty traditions that were maintained by our former greats who played the game with respect, dedication and honesty.

The recent incident was the ‘no ball’ fiasco indulged in by our cricketers - Suraj Randiv and Tillekeratne Dilshan, which went to deprive Indian batsman of a richly deserved century.

How nice, pleasurable, sporting and commendable it would have been had Randiv delivered a legitimate delivery and the batsman had reached three figures. Accepted that if a match cannot be won, then every effort must be made not to lose it. One can even argue that it’s fair and a part of the game—to try to stop a batman from reaching a land mark. Likewise it could be argued that one should not simply concede a run or a wicket simply to allow one to reach a landmark or a win.

There are rules that govern the game and one must play by the rules. There is of course the time honoured gesture - in the spirit of the game; but these gestures should not be treated as a ‘give away’ or a crafty manoeuvre. To cave into ulterior tactics will only earn the ire and condemnation of the connoisseurs of the game.

Randiv an example

Young Randiv who has always been an example from the time he stepped into the big money making league would not have done what he did considering that he delivered two legitimate deliveries to the batsman before delivering that ‘no ball’ that brought disgrace to the game and country.

Alas he was instigated, aided and abetted. It has now been exposed that Dilshan was the culprit who ordered Randiv to send down that deliberate ‘no ball’. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) headed by Somachandra de Silva which is doing everything to keep the game and the administration clean, acted with commendable alacrity to heal the wounds. SLC would have scored more points had it meted out the same punishment given to Randiv to Dilshan too. Or for that matter dispensed even a stiffer penalty.

It’s a pity that the action of Dilshan reflects badly on Captain Kumar Sangakkara too. While he had no part in this unsavory incident, it’s a reflection of a sign of indiscipline when a senior player, in this instance Dilshan, takes it upon himself to disrespect the Captain and shout orders as if there was more than one captain on the field! With the benefit of hindsight, these happenings should help Sangakkara to rein in on his team members and set a code of ethics and discipline that will henceforth raise the bar on standards of conduct on and off the field.

Churlish and unwarranted

On another front, Captain Sangakkara was pulled up by Match Referee Alan Hurst after he collided with Kiwi bowler Nathan McCullum while turning for a run in the Micromax Trophy game under lights at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium on Friday which was abandoned due to rain.

Hurst charged Sangakkara with a level 2 offence of the ICC Code of Conduct which relates to inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play. But the match referee let off the Sri Lankan captain after examining video evidence of the incident

I looked at video footage of the incident from various angles and considered the detailed evidence of the umpires. I found that video evidence that was put forward by the player provided reasonable doubt as to whether the contact was deliberate.

That Sangakkara had to be pulled up by the match referee was uncalled for and which left room for his captaincy to be questioned.

It’s opportune to put the issues that warrant the intervention of Match Referees into broader perspective. With professional cricket being commercialized there is the satanic temptation to allow personal gain to get the better of the hallowed traditions of the gentleman’s game. Wining at all costs tends to take precedence in several games where the time honoured axioms are, as it were, often hit for a six!

Spirit of the game

Cheating, sledging, ‘playing the umpire’ need to be watched and addressed. There should be no compromise. While it is a pleasure to watch teams playing the game according to the laws and in the spirit, it is nauseating to see some teams trooping into the pavilion and then taking their stand on the victory podium receiving a fat cheque and a trophy for winning unfairly.

To address such issues the International Cricket Council introduced laws, match referees, third umpires and Umpires Decision Referral System. The latter pioneered by Senaka Weeraratne

It would be of interest to recall the incident that warranted the introducing of the Match Referees.

In the past only the captains of the respective teams walk out to the centre to toss and decide who would bat first. As the story goes, two sub continent captains walked out to toss and the captain winning the toss had asked the other captain to maintain that he won the toss and decided to bat.

Dirty bit of play

This collusive dirty bit of play by these two captains, who were greats in the game, brought disgrace to the game. The sacrilege committed on the game prompted the ICC to ask Match Referees to accompany the captains to the toss and keep an eye on how the coin turns!

With money la filthy lucre— now more than ever before being part of the equation, we have seen birth of cheating graduating into such things as match fixing.

The founders of the game of cricket will surely be turning in their graves as captains are accosted to the centre by the Match Referee who watches the coin being tossed and ensures that the decision on how it turned is beyond reproach!

Sad as it is, the Match Referee had to be invented and brought in following the scandalous incident of the two sub continent captains who ‘sold the toss’. Such was the genesis of the Match Referee.

Let’s hope that international cricket especially with the Premier League type entering into the fray - that the eagle eye of Match Referees will not be called upon to work overtime! Those cricketing giants turning in their graves will surely have wished they died a thousand more deaths if the game gets into deeper disrepute.